The Lost One
by thewriteday
Summary: The Charmings and company are on their way to Henry. Picks up after the season 2 finale. There won't be another update for a while so for now just consider this a fluffy one-shot.


**A/N: **This is something I had written most of previous to the finale. I felt the need to post this one because of my abundance of finale feels. Consider this a teaser because it won't get another chapter until Be the Change is done (about 4-5 chapters left for that one methinks). But hopefully it's something people are interested in. If not, I can just leave it as is as a one-shot. By the way, Intervention is also going to get an update soon, it's just a lot trickier than I anticipated because of the content.

Anyway, hope you like this bit of fluff! I don't own anything Once Upon a Time, etc. Don't sue.

**The Lost One**

**Chapter 1 – All Hands on Deck**

"Are you all right?"

Emma didn't flinch at the voice – she didn't have much energy left to – but it _did_ surprise her. She'd been puking over the side of the Jolly Roger for the last twenty minutes or so, having waved her concerned mother away twice. She didn't really want anyone around to witness the overwhelming seasickness she hadn't anticipated or prepared for. All she wanted was for the seafaring portion of their journey to be over as soon as possible.

So when she heard the queen's voice, more careful and quiet than she was used to, she immediately wiped her mouth clear on her sleeve and turned to face the woman, still keeping an iron grip on the ship's railing to keep steady.

"I've been better." Emma replied dimly, taking a moment to spit over the side, wishing she could get the foul taste out of her mouth.

"Never been on a boat, I take it?" Regina's face glowed faintly under the moonlight. She was paler than Emma remembered. Then, she figured Regina hadn't really been getting out much in the last few months. She had lost her usual, healthy colour.

"Never had the pleasure, no." Emma rubbed her stomach with her free hand, squeezing her eyes shut against a fresh wave of nausea before willing it away and opening them again.

"The first time, in my experience, is always a little uncomfortable." Regina wrapped her arms around herself, closing out the chill in the air as the boat rocked uneasily.

They sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence, each still a little wary of the other.

"I'm sorry about Neal." The brunette said quietly, her fingers clenching against her arms. There was sincerity there in her eyes. Understanding, too. Emma blinked away the urge to cry.

"Me too."

Emma's mind swam with the insane events of the last day and a half. She'd lost so much – two of the people who'd figured into her life in the most important ways – and she was ever in danger of losing even more. She'd used magic, honest-to-goddamn magic. With Regina of all people. And even though they'd succeeded in saving the town, Emma couldn't suppress the niggling feeling that Storybrooke still would not be safe. That the friends she'd left behind would still be at risk.

And since she'd been assessing their surroundings since they'd popped out the other side of the portal, she still couldn't fathom that they were in another world. Again. It had felt more obvious in the Enchanted Forest, like a switch flicked into overdrive. She'd been able to _feel_ the difference.

So far, Neverland looked all ocean and nothing too extraordinary, which was probably a blessing since she was pretty sure if she'd had to grapple with anything more jarring than the nausea, she'd be overboard in less than a minute.

She looked back up to Regina, realizing they'd been each standing in silence again.

"Do you think we'll be able to find him?" Emma asked, her throat ragged. She didn't have to say that she meant Henry.

"Yes." Regina affirmed. She was regarding the blonde closely, trying her best to suppress her outright awe. Something had changed when they had disrupted the trigger together. Something odd had stirred in Regina's magic. She couldn't tell what it was, but so far she found herself remarkably unalarmed. It was a new sensation. Instead of suspicion, the only thing she could focus on was her blatant curiosity. Just how strong was Emma's magic? And how had they been able to upend the diamond so quickly?

"But how can we be sure that thing Gold used actually worked? What if he's wrong?" Emma rubbed her stomach. Her nerves were not relieving the nausea one bit. They were stirring it up instead, making her illness much worse than it should be.

"You're new to magic, dear. I've seen the device he used before – it _will _work. Don't think too much. It doesn't suit you." Regina tried to soften the words, make them more teasing than insulting, but then she'd never been very good at softening her tone.

Emma furrowed her brow. How was she supposed to know how all this shit worked? She thought it was perfectly reasonable to have concerns. Regina had to belittle her at every turn. Still. Apparently nothing _had_ changed.

"All right, all right. I get it. I'm an idiot."

Regina sighed, aware of her own failings at comfortable conversation more than ever. She stepped up to the railing beside the blonde. She looked out over the water, her face shifting from disappointment to regret to something else Emma couldn't pin down.

"You're _not_ an idiot." Regina said.

Emma might not have caught it if they hadn't been so close. She wanted to say something, to offer some encouragement in return. She recalled how broken Regina had looked when she'd been lying in Mary Margaret's bed in the apartment. She'd looked impossibly vulnerable. Maybe what Greg did to her had had more of an effect than she'd let on. And then there'd been the events in the mine – where Regina had exhibited a staggering degree of selflessness. It was surprising as much as it was encouraging.

But before any words of comfort could spring from Emma's mouth, a different expulsion threatened to erupt. Her stomach churned in a disobedient swirl.

"God damn it, not again," Emma groaned, one hand firmly clutched to her stomach as she leaned over the side in preparation.

Before she could lose her dinner – as if there was anything left of the slop the Captain had fed them – she felt a hand slip over hers, against her stomach. She didn't dare look over at Regina for fear she would accidentally let loose her gut's contents all over the woman. And _that_ was a mistake she was sure she'd never hear the end of.

The small hand was cold over hers at first. But then it began to heat and… shift. As if there were something moving in Regina's palm, through and out of her fingers.

Emma gasped as she realized that the feeling was not just strange, but also familiar. It wasn't just the magic – she recalled what it had felt like to use Gold's dream catcher and it was not like this – it was the same thing she'd felt with the trigger and when the hat's portal had opened. It was the way Regina's magic felt.

Emma squeezed her eyes shut again, focusing on the lightness being poured into her through Regina's skin. Little by little, her nausea seemed to dissipate, edging out of her as if it had never been.

After a few moments, she felt the magic lift too. Then Regina's hand fell away from hers. Emma was still hunched over the side of the ship, unable and partly unwilling to look into the other woman's face.

"Regina," Emma managed to sputter, but she was quickly cut off.

"You should feel better in an hour or so. Then you should get some rest. The journey is only going to get more difficult."

Emma listened as the boots clicked away across the deck and the door to the lower deck opened and shut behind the queen. Emma took a few more seconds to take slow, deliberate lungfuls of air; the saltiness of it wasn't making her ill anymore. Now it seemed somehow soothing.

She glanced at the doorway Regina had disappeared through. If she thought she had had strange interactions with the woman _before_, then the few encounters of the past 24 hours had to take the prize. Regina had expressed genuine concern, appreciation, consolation, and self-sacrifice – all things that at one point Emma had been sure she'd never be capable of.

But then Emma _had_ been sure before. Only in moments, when she saw Regina with Henry or when a crack of humanity let through a little of the woman Emma guessed she'd been before she'd been the queen.

Emma stood up straight, soothing her sore stomach muscles with her hand. Ceaseless puking was quite the ab workout. She rolled her neck, sighing as it cracked loudly.

She stayed on the deck, breathing slowly, enjoying the rocking of the ship against the waves now that it wasn't the source of stomach-upset. She glanced up at Killian. He was on the upper deck, looking more at ease and in his right place than she'd ever seen him. He fit there at the ship's wheel. And it was clear just being there had a soothing effect on him.

She didn't really believe in the whole, putting-aside-differences with Gold shtick that Hook was spouting, but they'd have to put their faith in him for now. She would keep her eye on him, just like she did before, and ruin him at the first signs of betrayal.

There was something else too – something odd about the way he'd offered his assistance. He was keeping something from them. That was all she could tell. And she was painfully curious as to what it could be.

After a little while, she realized just how exhausted she was. Foregoing sleep for worry was not working in her body's favour. She headed off in the direction of her makeshift room, knowing that she definitely needed the sleep Regina had suggested.

On the way, she couldn't help but peek into the space that had been set aside for Regina. The tiny room with the narrow cot against the wall was a far cry from the resplendence the woman was used to, both in this world and before, but in another of the string of surprises, Regina hadn't put up a fuss at all. She had merely nodded when Snow had told her she'd sleep there, at the opposite end of the hall from the Charmings.

Emma looked into the dim hold and could just make out the contorted features of the woman's face. She could see that the small form, huddled tightly in the cot, was shaking. Emma frowned. Regina's coat was draped over her, but it didn't seem to be doing much. Emma didn't actually find it that cold at all in the confines of the ship, but Regina looked like she was on the edge of hypothermia. Killian had very few supplies left aboard his ship and of course they'd been too rushed to bring anything useful. No blankets, no decent food, no creature comforts from their world-before.

Emma's eyes raked over the pale features, the lips that even in the darkness now looked blue. Emma wondered if Regina was paying this price for her assistance on the deck.

Without thinking, Emma stepped quietly into the room. She shucked her own black, pea coat and, after a moment's hesitation, she draped it over Regina's body, careful not to wake the woman. It didn't seem to make a difference. Emma crouched down a little and placed her hand gently on Regina's shoulder and, feeling somewhat ridiculous, she closed her eyes for a moment. She thought she felt a little tingling in the ends of her fingers, something like that weird sensation from before. Then her eyes snapped open and she saw no change in the woman's trembling.

She sighed softly in disappointment though she wasn't entirely sure what she'd expected or hoped would happen. She left the room, venturing one final glance back at the brunette as she left the archway.

In the darkness, Regina shivered again before her body filled with warmth. A bit of colour settled back into her skin and her lips returned to their natural hue.

As she slipped into a warmer dream, Regina's lips curved into a gentle smile.


End file.
